Min Aung Hlaing arrived in India on Saturday for his first foreign visit since taking over as Myanmar’s president in April, with talks on security, trade, and regional ties expected during the five-day trip.
Mr Hlaing landed in the eastern Bihar state in the morning before travelling to Bodh Gaya, one of Buddhism’s holiest pilgrimage sites, where he offered prayers at the Mahabodhi temple.
India’s foreign ministry said the visiting leader was set to hold talks with the prime minister Narendra Modi on 1 June. He was also expected to meet president Droupadi Murmu.
The ministry said the trip reflected the “strong spiritual, historical and people-to-people ties” between the neighbouring countries.
This is Mr Hlaing’s first visit to India since 2019, when he had travelled as Myanmar’s military chief.
Mr Hlaing shed his uniform and took over as president in April after a general election that critics said was meant to keep the military in power.
He has led the country since the military overthrew Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government in a 2021 coup.
The coup sparked mass protests that escalated into a civil war involving the military, pro-democracy forces and ethnic armed groups. The conflict has displaced 3.6 million people so far, according to the UN.
Ms Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy was barred from contesting the election that brought Mr Hlaing to the presidency, while voting was cancelled in several conflict-hit regions.
Ms Suu Kyi, 80, remains in detention. The government said in April her sentence had been reduced as part of a wider amnesty and that she had been moved from prison to house arrest, though authorities did not disclose her location.
Her son, Kim Aris, said this month there was still “no credible, independently verified proof” that she was alive and called on Myanmar’s authorities to “show proof of life”.
open image in galleryThe president’s visit to India comes as Myanmar’s leadership seeks to rebuild diplomatic engagement in the region after years of isolation.
After the 2021 coup, Asean barred Myanmar’s military leaders from its summits over the junta’s failure to implement a peace plan agreed with the regional bloc.
Richard Horsey, senior Myanmar adviser at Crisis Group, told Reuters that Mr Hlaing was “looking to boost diplomatic engagement across the region” after taking on the civilian role of president. “He expects more normal ties with Asean,” Mr Horsey said, “with support from Thailand and some other member states. He is also likely to visit Beijing soon to meet Xi Jinping. India is Myanmar’s other key neighbour.”
India maintained its ties with Myanmar’s junta despite sanctions and criticism from western countries following the coup. The two countries share a 1,643km boundary and cooperate on border security as well as intelligence-sharing operations targeting insurgent groups operating in the frontier region.
Gautam Mukhopadhaya, former Indian ambassador to Myanmar, told Reuters that Myanmar had long attempted to balance ties between China and India despite Beijing’s deep influence in the country. “The bottom line behind this visit from the Indian side is what they can get out of it in terms of raw materials, rare earths and business propositions,” he said.
Myanmar’s military has stepped up offensives in Kachin, Chin and Karen states as it has tried to regain territory lost to resistance forces. Some of these clashes have taken place near rare-earth mining areas and major trade routes connecting Myanmar with India, China and Thailand.
India was seeking access to Myanmar’s rare earth reserves, although China continued to dominate much of the regional supply chain, according to NPR.
open image in galleryYadanar Maung, spokesperson for the activist group Justice For Myanmar, said in a statement emailed to the Associated Press on Friday: “We condemn India’s decision to host Min Aung Hlaing, who is a war criminal waging a campaign of terror against the Myanmar people.”
“India must change course, stop awarding false legitimacy to the junta, stop profiting from the military’s campaign of terror against the people, and instead support the Myanmar people who are struggling and sacrificing daily for federal democracy,” she added.